NEXTracker Targets 15MW of Battery Solution Sales Per week

One of the world’s leading suppliers of solar PV trackers is targeting sales volumes of approximately 15MW per week of the new battery solution it has paired with its products.

NEXTracker, which according to GTM Research held 30% of the global PV tracker market as of April this year and was sold to Flextronics for US$330 million in 2015, recently launched its partnership with Avalon Battery, a flow battery maker from Oakland, California.

The solution, NX Fusion and NX Fusion Plus, comes pre-wired and pre-assembled, designed to serve as its “own independent renewable energy power plant,” according to the company. The bundles include the NX Horizon tracker, capable of rotating PV modules up to 120 degrees, DC wiring, string inverters, PV modules, UPS, piers and tracker monitoring and control system.

While many other companies are focusing on lithium-ion batteries, NEXTracker was persuaded to go with Avalon Battery’s flow technology after Avalon responded strongly to a novel request for proposal from the tracker specialist. NEXtracker director of sales for the storage solution, Ralph Fallant, told Energy-Storage.News at Intersolar Europe that it was a good fit overall.

“Our CTO Alex Au and one of our consultants, Josh Wiener, they produced an RFP called “decapitate the duck”. They were looking specifically for the best battery technology to be deployed with our type of product, to deal with the duck curve [the lack of overlap between peak solar production and peak energy consumption famously experienced in California],” Fallant said.

“They released a load profile that had two small discharges and one very deep discharge and that was the model people were supposed to compete against.”

As well as being the best entrant in that impromptu competition, the Avalon battery met other criteria that NEXtracker sought.

“What we found was a form factor that fits very well with our product. Our typical row is about 30kW, this is a 25kWh battery and it’ll be paired with a three-port Ideal Power inverter,” Fallant said.

DC-coupling of the solar array makes the system up to 15% more efficient on round-trips before discharge than AC-coupled systems, also allowing more of the traditionally ‘clipped’ energy to be used.

‘Competitive advantage over lithium’

The decision to pick a flow battery over lithium-ion was also due to the longevity of the product. Fallant said that especially when paired directly with PV, NEXTracker had desired a battery system that could last about as long as the PV system in the field – somewhere between 20 and 30 years, as opposed to the expected lifetime of roughly 10 years for many lithium-ion stationary storage systems.

“You can work this battery very hard, it’s especially good for rate arbitrage because you can really load it up all the way and once the PV system tails off during that evening peak time, then you can let all the energy go. You can also do multiple cycles. Typical lithium batteries are looking for about a 70% depth of discharge, any more than that and their lifespan decreases markedly, so we believe we have a competitive advantage over lithium in that fashion. We are seeing LCOE as low as under three cents in California for our solution.”

Fallant claimed that according to his financial modelling, even accounting for lithium-ion prices to fall 50% at each replacement cycle, the NEXTracker offering works out cheaper.

“When you look at the entire cost stack, everything from capacity and maintenance agreements, O&M, installation, based on our forecasts for 2018 prices, the actual lithium cells could be free – and our product’s still cheaper.”

While grid services and other supplementary revenue streams could in future become more lucrative, for now the tracker company’s solution is aimed at what Fallant called the “low-hanging fruit”: demand reduction, rate arbitrage and off-grid applications. There are already projects lined up to use NX Fusion and NX Fusion Plus, but due to non-disclosure agreements, Fallant was not able to give further details.

He emphasised however that the company felt there already exists a “huge market” for those low-hanging fruit applications.

“Based on the amount of tracker we’re selling – we’re shipping 150MW a week right now – I’m looking to, within a year, be shipping our battery with at least 5% to 10% of that if not more,” Fallant said.

VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. and Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. are pleased to announce the filing of the national entry phases in South Africa, India and the United States of the international patent application.

VanadiumCorp and its Board of Directors are pleased to announce the following corporate updates: Management’s recommendations approved by shareholders at the AGM / The Company welcomes Mr. Sokhie Puar to the board of VanadiumCorp / Stock Option Update

VanadiumCorp and Electrochem have signed a Patent Option Agreement for Ultra to purchase an exclusive license. Ultra plans to utilize the Australian license of "VEPT" to expedite construction of the world’s first dedicated vanadium processing facility.

VanadiumCorp and Electrochem are pleased to announce that The World Intellectual Property Organization has officially published the Patent Cooperation Treaty of the International Patent Application WO 2018/152628 (A1) on August 30th, 2018.

VanadiumCorp is pleased to announce that Francois Cardarelli, President of Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc. will be presenting at the Canadian Institute of Mining conference held in Chibougamau on May 2, 2018.

Following the release of an energy storagetechnoeconomic study, ‘The South AfricaEnergy Storage Technology and Market Assessment’, advocating that South Africa requires market preparation to take advantage…

Combining solar panels with batteries to keep electricity flowing when the sun isn't shining has long been the target for companies dabbling in the emerging technologies of the power grid.

This year is seeing more development in that space than ever before, thanks to falling battery and solar prices, the marketing prowess of super-entrepreneur Elon Musk, and national and international clean-energy and climate-change policies.

The clean-energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move, U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years. This will give an unprecedented boost to the industry and change the course of deployment in the U.S.

The extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—more than every panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The U.S. was already one of the world's biggest clean-energy investors. This deal is like adding another America of solar power into the mix.

Be Informed

About Us

VanadiumCorp is a mining and technology company with a vision to become the primary producer of vanadium and specialty metals. The Company growth strategy is focused on development of industry leading resources and process technology located in Canada.